The media and messages coming out of Afghanistan right now are devastating. 

It’s been hard to dig through my emotions towards this whole situation and put in writing my clear feelings towards the Afghan Government’s collapse to the Taliban in just under a week… 

Already women’s universities have been vandalized or destroyed and there has been evidence of letters found telling women aged between 15 - 40 to marry Taliban soldiers if they are single. Models in women's advertisements are being painted over and destroyed as well as aggressive violence is escalating against local journalists and media, especially directed toward the female members of these professions. Afghanistan was one of the most oppressive nations in the world under Taliban rule previously.

One trillion dollars spent, twenty years of occupation, and well over 100,000 lives lost attempting to build a government that millions of Afghans believed in, only for it to be so unstable that it collapses within a week. Just a few days ago the CIA was estimating that Afghanistan could be taken as soon as 3 - 6 months by the Taliban, so how could foreign intelligence have been so weak when there were so many signs of a complete failure within the system.

How did this happen?

A topic I constantly heard spoken about while in Afghanistan during my stay was corruption, and how sick of this corruption the people were. This made me think about studying the war in Vietnam and how similar Kabul and Saigon have fallen with the USA leaving whilst the nation they had attempted to build is collapsing at their feet. Seeing comments online with people stating that, “they need to fight for themselves for once” yet don’t understand the true situation on the ground as the fighting had never stopped.

You can’t build a non-functioning system and get angry when it fails. 

There is a lot more to a nation than guns and training, tossing money toward a corrupt government cannot fix the issues inside of Afghanistan, you would think that the world would understand that by now. Afghanistan is an ancient diverse nation with countless tribes and traditions. Not even studied scholars know exactly how many languages are spoken in the nation with estimates reaching around 40 - 60 different languages, yet when the American idealism of Democracy doesn’t work we are surprised. 

I’m not sure what the answers are in this situation, foreign occupation is not a viable long-term option. We can’t just blame one single person or a single nation as this ‘blow-up’ has been building up over the last 40 + years with modern issues stemming from the cold war and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. However, the Afghan people trusted the West, they had faith that things could get better and we failed them. Seeing people seeking refuge chased with an Apache helicopter piloted by US soldiers on an airstrip and people falling from the sky over Kabul as they try to hold onto American planes taking off to escape the Taliban is heartbreaking.

The kind of desperation the Afghan people are feeling right now, most of us in the West will never be able to comprehend in our lifetimes. The West built and invested in a broken, corrupt system and made people believe in it, only to abandon them when we get tired of it not working. situations like this are what create extremism and resentment towards the west. Over 43 nations took part in OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. over 40 nations with people directly affected by the conflict. I feel everyone is partially responsible for what is taking place now.

We should be more than angry and ashamed about what is happening, but should also take the time to educate ourselves and understand how we ended up here so we can prevent another event like this from happening in our lifetime, or ever again.

I wish my best for all the people of Afghanistan and truly hope that more countries will open up their borders and provide safe passage to refugees and people who have assisted with the Nato/American missions, fixers and tour companies.

Seth Cullen Scott

August 16th, 2021